Zentralinstitut fuer Seelische Gesundheit

The Central Institute of Mental Health (CIMH) is a globally recognised centre of modern psychiatry delivering outstanding science, research and teaching in partnership with institutions at home and abroad. From hyperactivity disorders to depression and dementia, from addictive personalities to schizophrenia and “stalking“, from eating disorders to dream research and phobias. The researchers at the CIMH examine the ways in which mental illness occurs, develops and is medically treated. With a view to determining the reasons behind psychological disorders, they develop new therapeutic methods and observe the complex interconnections in the human brain.

Description of the geriatric psychiatry of the Central Institute for Mental Health, Mannheim (CIMH) In the clinical care, the department of geriatric psychiatry of the psychiatric clinic of the Central Institute for Mental Health, Mannheim performs the regional mission for the city of Mannheim for all mentally ill elderly citizens (senior physician and head of the department head is Prof. Dr. Lutz Froelich). The Department of Geriatric Psychiatry at the (CIMH) of the University of Heidelberg is a separate department within the Central Institute, which is specialized in clinical research in elderly patients with cognitive disorders. It has 44 geriatric psychiatric beds for inpatient treatment (22 of them SCU-B-beds) plus 12 daycare clinic places.

There is close contact to the University Medical Centre Mannheim, a hospital of maximum care. Important for clinical research is the Memory Clinic, which is collaborating closely with the psychiatric outpatient clinic / geriatric outpatient clinic. It provides outpatient care for approximately 700 new patients per year with cognitive disorders. Here the typical patient clientele of a memory clinic is found, a highly specialized outpatient department for the evaluation (and treatment) of memory disorders in age, usually neurodegenerative dementias.

A clinical study centre is part of the CIMH since 2007. The clinical study centre is medically and scientifically oriented and cooperates closely with the Coordinating Centre for Clinical Trials (KKS) of the University of Heidelberg and the Department of Biostatistics of the Central Institute of Mental Health, which has many years of intensive methodological expertise in planning and implementation clinical studies. The clinical study centre is available to all hospitals, institutes and departments of the CIMH.
The staff of the clinical trial centre of the department of geriatric psychiatry consists of 3 investigators, 3 experienced neuro-psychologists and one study coordinator / study nurse.

The Department of Geriatric Psychiatry is part of Heidelberg University’s Network on Aging Research (NAR), and among other projects involved in the data analysis of three multicenter European studies funded in the 5th and 6th EU FP (ICTUS, DESCRIPA, EDAR), and has contributed to the EU FP 6 project EUROCoDe as a WP leader.

Staff members

PI

Lutz Froelich is Professor of Geriatric Psychiatry at the University of Heidelberg, Germany, and Head of the Department of Geriatric Psychiatry at the Central Institute for Mental Health, Mannheim, Germany.
After graduation from Medical School, Universities of Kiel, Heidelberg and Lexington/Ky., he was a Research Fellow on animal models of Alzheimer’s disease (Heidelberg University) and on post mortem human brain research in dementias (Würzburg University). As specialist in Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, he has worked at the Dept. of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Universities of Würzburg and Frankfurt/Main, Germany, where he received his habilitation in psychiatry (eq. to Ph.D.) with experimental work on Insulin and insulin receptors in post-mortem human brain in Alzheimer’s disease. Since 2003, he is the head of the clinical gerontopsychiatry section with memory clinic and out-patient care for nursing homes at the Central Institute of Mental Health. His major research interest is on translational dementia research, biomarkers and clinical trials in Alzheimer’s disease. He has published extensively on various aspects of translational dementia research including textbook articles. Since 2005, he has been investigator in many clinical trials in Alzheimer’s disease.
He has been co-founder of three regional Alzheimer Societies and is member of the Advisory Board of Baden-Württemberg Alzheimer Society. He is member of several Guideline Committees for diagnosis and management of dementias, and co-Chair of the Executive Committee of the European Alzheimer’s Disease Consortium (EADC). He also is Deputy Chair of the Ethics Committee of the Medical Faculty Mannheim, University of Heidelberg.

Member

Lucrezia Hausner is post-doc researcher at the Department of Geriatric Psychiatry at the Central Institute for Mental Health, Mannheim, Germany. She is specialist for Psychiatry and Psychotherapy and holds the Germany certificate “Gerontopsychiatry”. 2009-2010, she was post-doc researcher at the Gerontopôle, Department of Internal Medicine and Clinical Gerontology and the INSERM U558, Department of Epidemiology, Toulouse University Hospital, France. Her major research interest is on non-pharmacological treatment in old age psychiatry and the evaluation of the clinical utility of CSF biomarkers in dementia diagnostics. She is currently involved in two major research projects on sensorimotor training, brain plasticity and the role of BDNF in frail elderly and subjects with mild cognitive impairment. She is (co-) author on 27 peer-reviewed publications and 9 textbook chapters.